Chapter 37 The Ancient Town Tour - Preparation

Chen Sheng and Han Yadong were even more delighted, grinning from ear to ear as soon as they entered and saw Bai Xiao and the others already making the Hundred Family Flags.

"What good fortune did you run into? Why are you both grinning like that?" Ma Huilin asked, puzzled.

"Are we grinning?" Chen Sheng touched the corner of his mouth.

"No, no, we're probably just starving. We got a little carried away after finally eating our fill," Han Yadong explained. Then, turning to Chen Sheng, he sighed, "I really didn't expect the local specialty here to be so delicious and cheap. I regret not buying some to bring back."

"What did you eat?"

"Just meat. Didn't you have any? The owner of the braised meat shop said the meat was newly bestowed by the Mountain God just yesterday. And this kind of meat is only found in Qingshan Town; it's a local specialty you can't get outside. It was so fragrant, and surprisingly cheap too—only a hundred yuan a bowl. We each had three big bowls!"

Han Yadong grew more animated as he spoke and suggested to the group, "The owner said this meat is best eaten on rainy days—nourishing and warming. After the rehearsal this afternoon, let's go have another meal. Just talking about it makes me feel hungry again."

Chen Sheng covered his stomach and nodded repeatedly.

Seeing their gluttonous expressions, Ma Huilin didn't want to hear more and was only concerned about clues: "Let's not get sidetracked with that for now. Did you figure out the specific process for the rehearsal and the Parade God Team?"

The two men nodded: "The Parade God Team involves us carrying the deity statue from the town entrance, proceeding along the main street to the central square to bestow blessings upon the Townsfolk. Then, we pass through the Divine Path on the square to return the Mountain God to the temple."

Hearing this, Bai Xiao and the other two asked in unison, "Which path is the Divine Path they mentioned? And which direction is the temple?"

Chen Sheng and Han Yadong were stunned by the question. It suddenly dawned on them why they had felt, upon hearing the Townsfolk describe the Parade God Team process, as if they already inherently knew the location of the Divine Path and the temple.

The two men jolted awake, abruptly snapping out of their previous mood. The fervor in their eyes slowly faded, and their grinning mouths relaxed. They looked somewhat like people whose souls had been suddenly recalled to their bodies after being possessed.

That illusory sense of prior knowledge gradually dissipated, and their thinking returned to that of players.

"We seemed to know just now, but now it seems we don't anymore," Chen Sheng muttered dazedly.

This left the three female players utterly confused: "What on earth are you two talking about?"

Chen Sheng and Han Yadong didn't know how to describe it. They felt like certain nodes in their memory had become jumbled: "We don't know how to explain it clearly either. We only remember the Divine Path is on the square, and passing through it will naturally lead to the temple."

"But there are so many alleys on the square. Which one is it?" Ma Huilin pressed.

Chen Sheng and Han Yadong could only shake their heads woodenly, their eyes filled with confusion.

These two were clearly not in their right minds.

Bai Xiao thought it seemed the meat really was problematic, though she wasn't sure exactly how. Still, she reminded everyone, "For now, we should avoid eating the meat sold in town. Don't you find it strange? Yesterday, the Shop Owner said meat was scarce, a specialty, and everything was very expensive. Then, after just one night, so much fresh meat appears and is sold so cheaply? That's definitely not normal."

Upon hearing this, Chen Sheng and Han Yadong's expressions changed instantly. They began trembling involuntarily: "They wouldn't have poisoned it, would they? Are we going to be okay?"

Bai Xiao shook her head: "I haven't discovered anything more for now. Since you weren't taken away like the previous few people, you should probably be fine. Just don't eat any more from now on to avoid any real danger."

The two men nodded worriedly.

Around three or four in the afternoon, the Hundred Family Flags were completed. Chen Sheng and Han Yadong, not in good condition, didn't participate in making them. They had gone upstairs to rest after the earlier conversation.

As it approached five o'clock, Chen Sheng and Han Yadong still hadn't come down. The rehearsal was about to start soon, and time wouldn't wait. The three women exchanged glances and decided to go upstairs together to call them.

The two men's door wasn't shut tight, but it wasn't proper for the three girls to just enter. They stood by the doorway, knocked, and pushed it open a crack.

"We should head out for the rehearsal. Are you awake?"

"Coming," came the reply from inside, accompanied by dragging footsteps.

The room was pitch black. The heavy footsteps, combined with the darkness, gave an inexplicable sense of danger. Bai Xiao signaled for them to step back from the door.

With a creak, the door opened from the inside. Chen Sheng and Han Yadong walked out, rubbing their bleary eyes.

Seeing they seemed fine, the three women finally let their hearts settle.

The Guide, Manager Chen, had returned to the front hall at some point. Seeing the five of them come down, he breathed a sigh of relief, though somewhat displeased: "I thought your Parade God Team had run off with the money. Hurry up, it's getting late."

The group thought to themselves that if they could have run, they would have done so long ago—they wouldn't have waited until now. But arguing was clearly pointless. They silently followed him to the shrine in the guesthouse and repositioned the deity statue on the bamboo sedan chair.

Previously, Chen Sheng and Han Yadong had always taken the initiative to carry the sedan chair. But this time, the two men just stood dumbly to the side, not speaking.

"I can carry it," Bai Xiao said to her two female companions.

Hearing this, Ma Huilin also said, "Then I'll do it with you."

"I'll carry the flag," Huang Xinxin followed up.

Huang Xinxin led the way holding the flag. Bai Xiao and Ma Huilin carried the bamboo sedan chair, one in front and one behind. The two men followed behind as if they'd lost their souls.

Darkness fell early in the town. A little past five, the sky was already a deep blue, and the streets were once again deserted.

The rain intensified a bit. The road was uneven and slippery. The patter of rain made the eerily quiet town feel even more oppressive.

"Those two aren't right. We need to keep an eye on the deity statue. If anything seems off, we run immediately," Bai Xiao whispered to her two female companions.

The other two also sensed something was wrong and nodded in agreement.

As they neared the square, they saw that torches couldn't be lit due to the rain. The Townsfolk stood densely packed in several rows, facing the main street, motionless and silently staring ahead.

Each of them wore a large straw raincoat, resembling tall scarecrows, looking particularly eerie in the rainy night. Each held a glass oil lamp. From a distance, before the figures were visible, the flickering candlelight within the glass lamps looked like clusters of ghostly flames floating in mid-air, utterly terrifying.

To put it mildly, Bai Xiao and the others were startled by these hundreds of ghostly flames when they spotted them from afar.

The so-called 'bestowing blessings upon the Townsfolk' involved carrying the deity statue in a circle around the Townsfolk and then returning to the altar.

The five of them carried the deity statue and began circling the square. As they passed each section, the Townsfolk bowed in greeting to receive the blessings. After receiving the blessings, they picked up their lamps and retreated into the nearby alleys.

By the time the five completed the circle and returned to the altar, the previously crowded square was already completely empty.

The wind carried the rain, chilling their faces. The town's central square seemed to be a low-lying area, where rainwater accumulated, submerging half their shoe heels.

"Which way do we go?" Ma Huilin looked at the pitch-black alleys surrounding them, momentarily unsure how to choose.

Huang Xinxin also looked at Bai Xiao. Over the past two days, they had gradually grown accustomed to Bai Xiao making the decisions.

"Let's just pick one for now. This is only a rehearsal, not the final Parade God Team ceremony. It probably won't determine the final outcome. We'll check out the situation in the alley first," Bai Xiao said.

Pointing to an alley diagonally left of the altar, Bai Xiao said, "Let's take that one."

At that moment, Chen Sheng and Han Yadong seemed to wake up, both shivering simultaneously. They felt their thoughts finally clearing. They knew the rehearsal had begun, though they didn't understand why they had been so dazed earlier. Now fully alert and seeing the two girls carrying the bamboo sedan chair, they stepped forward and said, "Let the two of us carry the sedan chair."